Unexpected
by This scepter'd Isle
Summary: Lucas is a hard working and reclusive billionaire working on a project in Tree Hill. Peyton works as a model at an Ad company and is prone to exploiting opportunities. But what happens when an opportunity arises that causes both their worlds to collide.
1. Taking Advantage

AN: Hey guys. This is my first fanfic so go easy please. Its AU and Leyton. For those of you may recognise the story line, yeah I took the story from the film Ghajini, its a bollywood film for those of you who don't know, and for those who do, I only took the happy parts, so there won't be any dying or revenge/angry/hate scenes.

Chapter 1- Taking Advantage

Lucas Scott stepped out of his private jet observing his new surroundings. As the inventor of the technology, he had personally decided to head up his company's latest project that could potentially double their market share and presence. Lucas Scott at the age of 25 was the CEO of ScottCom, a telecommunications company founded by his grandfather and his great uncle in the early 60s, which primarily had dealt in converting military grade telecommunications technology for the smaller towns and cities in the US, thus effectively diversifying themselves from the large conglomerates that had dominated the market at the time of ScottCom's inception. Lucas's father Dan Scott and his uncle Keith Scott, took over from their father and uncle at the end of the 80s, through shrewd investments in technology development and better infrastructure, the company was able to develop a consistent presence in the market, however the rise of mobile telecommunications technology from European competitors in the late 90s and early 2000s, had limited ScottCom's growth and market strength, however with its government contracts and strong regional presence ScottCom limited foreign expansion efforts through the raising of the barriers to entry.

Lucas graduated early from Yale at the age 17 and quickly made his way up the organisation through his innovative ideas and new technological developments, at the age of 21 and due to his father's ill health Lucas became the head of R&D and the second-in-command from his uncle Keith, having been instrumental in the development of the LS358 mobile telephony broadband standard allowing for greater range and clarity of transmission allowed the mobile telecommunications division of the firm to become the predominant profit generator. Lucas's proficiency and acumen in technology and the knowledge of new market trends that would require significant organisational changes was the reason for his appointment as CEO. His uncle Keith decided it was best to hand over the reins to his nephew, given Lucas' dedication and drive to make ScottCom one the biggest and the best organisations in the world. Lucas quickly appointed his brother Nathan as CFO and Nathan's wife Haley as the new head of R&D, Dan, Keith and Lucas' grandfather Royal remained on the board of directors to help him be flexible in his roles in the organisation as both CEO and inventor as well as the reclusive billionaire role he had developed. Lucas never did any interviews, and the ones he did do were in print and without his picture. This anonymity helped ground him and allow him to do his job better. The new project was based on testing new technologies developed by Lucas. The location that was chosen for the pilot study was Tree Hill, a small town in North Carolina.

As he stepped off the last step he was greeted by his assistant Marvin "Mouth" McFadden who ushered him to his car and towards the headquarters of the project on the outskirts of the town. As part of the project installations of antennae and other communications technologies in the suburban areas of Tree Hill would be needed which would mean the acquisition of these locations. Lucas loved his job as CEO, but also glad to focus on his other role for the next 9 or so months, he had left his brother and his brother's wife with the joint responsibility so that not to overload them, however he also surmised that if they were to need him he would be there and it wasn't like he wasn't going to check and perform some of his responsibilities as CEO while he was in Tree Hill.

As Lucas was in the full flow of his day by 8 am, Peyton Sawyer was as usual running late.

"Shit! Shit!" She exclaimed as she ran towards the building with the large letters stating "Max Ads". She quickly dispensed her morning coffee in the nearest trash can and adjusted her unruly curly blonde hair so that she didn't look like she just got out of bed. As she approached her director she noticed his agitated and annoyed stance while he was talking to the lights technician.

"Well if it isn't the great Peyton Sawyer, what an honour for us to be graced by your majesty's presence" Max sarcastically said turning towards a sheepish looking Peyton.

"Sorry Max, but the traffic..." She said trying to think of a valid excuse.

"Traffic? In Tree Hill? Right, why don't you go to the makeup room an get ready we've already wasted an hour and half waiting for you, and by the way you look terrible" He said offhandedly knowing it would get his annoyance across to her. Peyton was about to reply to the jibe but thought better of it. She had worked for Max Ads since she came back to Tree Hill after college, now at the age of 23, she worked as a model for the multitude of advertisements that came to Max Ads, however she was not the main model, she was still very much a peripheral model, the honour of the main model went to Rachel Gattina. God knew why? Its not like its her fault that she has trouble waking up at the ungodly hour of 5 in the morning or that she constantly managed to annoy Max. But one thing that Peyton knew, that she would one way or the other usurp Rachel's position. Alas! she sighed, that would probably have to wait another day. As Peyton finished getting ready to shoot the advert about washing powder made locally in Tree Hill, Lucas Scott and his engineers arrived at the first location that they needed to acquire so that they install the equipment. They arrived at TRIC a local night club, however what they were interested in was the location above the night club, that of an apartment belonging to a certain Peyton Sawyer.

"So have you been able to get this location" Lucas asked one of his employees.

"Unfortunately no, its seem Miss Sawyer is unwilling to sell." He replied.

"Okay, may be I should speak with... Miss Sawyer was it?" Lucas asked in clarification and at the nod of his assistant Marvin he continued. "May be I could convince her, arrange the meeting Marvin" Lucas said authoritatively.

"Yes Sir" Marvin replied and opened the door to Lucas' car and waited for them to leave so he could track down Miss Sawyer.

Marvin arrived at "Max Ads" having tracked down the location of Miss Sawyer's employment. He approached who looked like the director of whatever this was.

"Hi, my name is Marvin McFadden and I'm the assistant of Lucas Scott, the CEO of ScottCom and I was looking for Miss Sawyer is she around?" Marvin asked hoping to get the attention by name dropping.

"Miss Sawyer? Oh you mean Peyton, she's in the make up room over there" Max replied pointing towards the room intrigued by this development, quickly seeing the business opportunity Max ordered one of the extras to grab a coffee and take to the assistant of Lucas Scott, he also wondered what someone like Lucas Scott would want with Peyton. He watched as the guy seemed to be pleading with Peyton, who remained impassive, as the coffee arrived causing the door to be opened the pleading phrase of the assistant could be heard.

"Please Miss Sawyer be reasonable he just wants to meet you..." and at closing of the door Max watched on intrigued. Peyton seemed even more impassive if that was possible. He also saw a dejected looking Marvin walking towards the door leaving Peyton. Max approached him.

"Is everything okay?" He asked.

"I don't know, she's just being unreasonable he just wants to meet with her..." Marvin sighed.

"Well Marvin, I'll talk to her, be sure to mention Max Ads to your boss, okay" Max stated escorting Marvin out. Max quickly made his way towards Peyton, the crowd that had gathered having heard the name Lucas Scott had not dissipated and waited for Peyton emergence for any kind of gossip.

"Miss Sawyer" Max began in his best sycophantic voice.

"Huh?" Peyton replied confused at the tone of voice and the use of the formal greeting.

"You talking to me?" She asked looking around.

"Who else would be talking to Peyton" Max said smiling towards her.

"Okay?" She replied still confused.

"So why don't you just meet him, I mean he went through this trouble to locate you" Max said hoping to not let this potential networking opportunity go.

"What? Oh you mean Lucas..."

"Yes, Lucas Scott, come on Peyton it's not like everyday you get asked out by someone like Lucas Scott" Max explained trying to change Peyton's mind.

"What?..." Peyton asked even more confused.

"I mean just think about what it could do for your career or Max Ads, I mean the possibilities are endless, I mean we can finally go national it would be because of you Peyton." Max said oblivious to Peyton's confusion.

"Oh! He wasn't..." Peyton paused to think about what she should do, on the one hand she could come clean, and on the other hand she could finally become the top model and dethrone Max's precious Rachel, and besides it's not like she ever going to have to meet Lucas Scott, she could just pretend it didn't work out, or he wanted someone else.

"You know what Max you're right, I shouldn't dismiss his proposal"

"What? Proposal?" Max asked shocked.

"Yeah, he proposed but I wasn't sure, I mean it's not like we know each other very well, but thinking about he does love me, so I say why not?" She said smiling milking the situation for all its worth.

"Wow, oh you call him and let him know right away" Max said handing Peyton his phone.

"Hi...It's Peyton could you patch it through to Lucas." She said without waiting for the person on the other end to inquire who it was.

"What?" Came the reply

"Yeah thanks, I can wait" She replied nonchalantly, rolling her eyes for the benefit of her audience.

"I don't know who you are...wait Peyton Sawyer? Thanks for wasting our time, we know you don't own the building you just lease it and you haven't even paid the rent for the last two months! Don't bother calling here again" He said hanging up the phone.

"Yeah, hey Luke... yeah I wanted sincerity" _pause for effect _"but I realised it was heart felt so the answer is yes, yes I will marry you" _perfect _"okay I know you're busy so I'll talk to you later" She answered to the dial tone before hanging up.

"So yeah, I'm engaged!" She exclaimed towards the audience.

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	2. The Benefits

Chapter 2- The Benefits

It had been two days since she had announced that she was engaged to none other that Lucas Scott. In that time everyone had seem to be treating her differently, with more respect and regard, she couldn't say she was complaining though. Her career had also been on the rise, Max gave her more important roles in the commercials and the more important commercials, she was also given a role in recruiting new models giving her more power and more people to fawn after her attention, a down side however of her supposed engagement was that a lot of people were now asking her to talk to Lucas about their business or get them the opportunity to get a job working for ScottCom, but she decided it was worth it in the end. The greatest benefit was knocking Rachel of her perch and seeing Rachel's jealousy only spurred on her misinformation further, she had now concocted a whole wooing phase depicting Lucas as an obsessive and passionate pursuer. A story she would readily tell to anyone who would listen.

Lucas Scott, unaware of his new relationship status, remained steadfast in his diligence and roles in the organisation. It had turned out that they would not need to purchase the apartment above TRIC for the equipment to be installed, it would be cheaper and more effective to lease the roof of TRIC itself, thus reducing the importance of the apartment, which was coincidentally lucky for Peyton who would have had no place to live if the apartment were to purchased by ScottCom. Having achieved this Lucas's next priority pertained specifically towards the running of ScottCom and possible expansion abroad. However, until they got to that point he had to make sure their strategic plans could facilitate such expenditure, decisions on the how as well as the when would also need to be discussed, therefore, whenever Lucas had any free time in regards to the project, he would be on the phone with his brother and sister-in-law discussing the practicalities of ScottCom's ambitions of internationalising, leaving not a lot of time for a person life.

Which, luckily, was also Peyton's excuse for not having a ring on her finger yet, or having Lucas meet her friends yet. However, both of these facts were garnished by the usual Peyton Sawyer hyperbole. Her excuse for not having a ring yet was that Lucas had ordered a ring from the finest ring makers in Europe and the intricacies of the design and clarity and size of he diamond would mean it would take quiet a while before she would wear it, she also hoped internally that before the "ring" was finished she would end the relationship citing Lucas's preoccupation with his job and not paying attention to her. With this plan of sorts in mind she did not mind laying it on thick, which only seemed to elevate her status further as potential clients of Max Ads often overheard the extravagant tales of Lucas Scott and how he begged to be married to the tall blonde girl. Peyton was surprised herself at how people would readily believe her often fantastical stories, she even went as far to see what they would believe to test the limits, she also realised the people who would believe her the most were often those who wanted something from her, a favour, a recommendation or meeting with Lucas, and for these favours she realised many of her "believers" lavished her with free products or discounts, she didn't know what she could do with a life times supply of Tree Hill's finest dish washing powder, but she accepted it non the less. The week of being Lucas Scott's fiancée had been a good one for Peyton and she hoped the next week would be the same. But before she could retire for the weekend, Max had informed her that an Advertisement film co-ordinator who has a lot of connections with nationally recognised Advertisement Agencies would be visiting and had asked her to casually inform him of her connections with ScottCom so to improve the image of Max Ads and attract more clients. Peyton reassured Max that she would not let him down and began formulating the perfect story.

Jake Jagielski arrived at Max Ads hoping to get some insight into plight of the small time models trying to make it big. He had recently moved to Tree Hill, with his 7 year daughter and wife to Tree Hill the town of his parents after having accepted the role of entertainment correspondent, or in layman's terms the gossip column, of the Tree Hill Tribune. He approached one of the men carrying lights.

"Excuse me, my name Jake Jagielski and I'm a reporter for the Tribune; I'm doing a story on struggling models, would it be possible to talk to someone?" He asked in a professional manner. The man quickly pointed towards what looked like the make up room, where he saw a tall blonde model talking on the phone. He made his way towards the room and watched as the blonde ended the call and began to apply make up. He knocked catching her attention.

"Yes?" She asked swivelling on her chair to face him.

"Hi...I'm Jake..." He started but was quickly interrupted by the blonde.

"Oh, of course...Max told me you would be coming; have a seat." She said motioning towards the sofa.

"He did?" Jake asked confused.

"Yeah, would you look at that, these people take so long getting the set ready, you know. I've got to go to the airport as well to meet Lucas"

"Lucas, who?" He asked even more confused.

"Lucas Scott, the CEO of ScottCom; and my fiancé" She said confidently.

"The Lucas Scott? Fiancé?" Jake asked getting excited at the prospect on wondering into a story.

"Yeah, of course, you know we met in an airport in Chicago, his private jet needed repairs so he had to take a commercial jet; and the whole time in airport lobby he kept staring at me, I didn't know at the time he was Lucas Scott. On the plane he even managed to get a seat next to mine and he comes over and says: "Hi, I'm Lucas Scott"; and I said hi too. That's when I knew he was Lucas Scott..." She was interrupted by Jake who asked if he could take notes. She readily agreed and began to regale with her first impressions of Lucas, his determined pursuit, their first date; the first time he said "I love you" and his first proposal. Jake frantically took every detail, excited about the prospect of the story.


	3. The Consequences

Chapter 3- The Consequences

Lucas Scott had spent his weekend with his family; relaxing and enjoying the time he got to spend with his 4 years old nephew James Lucas Scott. The boy was perhaps spoilt most by Lucas, and in return Jamie adored his Uncle Luke. Arriving back in Tree Hill on the Monday morning, he was greeted by his assistant and friend Mouth; privately and Marvin; in the presence of company. Lucas, however, noticed an agitated nervousness in his friend's behaviour as he sat down at his desk preparing to go through the day's schedule, until he noticed a copy of the Tree Hill Tribune showing the headline "Billionaire To Wed Tree Hill's Own". Perplexed, Lucas decided to read on:

"Yes that's true folks! Lucas Scott the CEO of ScottCom, who is currently in Tree Hill working on top secret project, is to wed Tree Hill's own Peyton Sawyer, the lead model at Max Ads..."

Lucas read on about he had met and pursued this woman, as well as how he had proposed to her twice, _begging_ for her to be his wife. To say he was annoyed would have been a great understatement. His whole life he had tried to stay out of the cross-hairs of the media, only ever talking about business and never about his personal life; and for this woman, his "fiancée", to all but throw him into the pit. He was mad. He could have gone to the newspaper and asked to retract the story or be sued for libel, but he did not wish to add more fuel to the fire, for if he were to respond then surely he would garner greater attention. So he decided he would go to the source, the woman, his "fiancée" himself and confront her for the fraud she was. "Peyton Sawyer" he read again, he was sure he had heard that name before.

"Mouth, do I know this...this woman. Peyton Sawyer. Do I know her?" Lucas asked turning his attention to his friend.

"Yeah, it's the same woman, you know with the apartment over TRIC. " Mouth responded not knowing how Lucas would react.

"Mouth, I think it's time I meet my future wife" Lucas said getting up from his desk and determinedly walking towards the exit leaving a confused Mouth to follow.

"Luke are you sure that's wise?" Mouth asked breaking into a jog as he caught up to him.

"I think it's a must." Lucas replied as he got into the back of his car. Lucas told Mouth to cancel his morning appointments and that he would let him know how it went.

Lucas's car stopped at some road works near what seemed liked an art gallery. He looked out and noticed several injured children; with either broken arms or legs on crutches with a few nurses near the drive way of the building next to the gate, trying to find a way to get all the children to cross the waterlogged ditch that was created by the road works, making it dangerous for the ones on crutches to cross. He then noticed a tall blonde woman with curly hair and strikingly green/hazel eyes approach the children smiling. He then watched as she went to the large metal gate slightly behind the ditch and proceeded to bring it in front of the children and asked them to hold on to the gate, as she slowly swung them across over the ditch safely allowing them entry. Lucas heard the children's cheers and the gratefulness of the nurses, he smiled as he watched the girl smile and wave back before making her way through to a nearby café. The car moved and made its way towards Max Ads, which caused Lucas to glance towards the café and shake his head trying to clear the thoughts of the helpful woman and focus on his mission to confront the fraudulent woman.

Lucas decided to leave the car a few blocks away from the building so not to attract attention. As he walked towards the building he noticed a line of men awaiting entry. He decided to hold back and observe what was happening. As he entered the building he realised the men were actually aspiring models as well as some men wanting to gain a connection to him by meeting his "fiancée". He heard the woman before he saw her. She was busy recalling a tale about how she and him had supposedly met and fell in love. He heard the guy in front of him give his name as "James", who was also informed of "their" love story. It was his turn to meet her, he made his way around to see who she was, he heard her on the phone and was about to interrupt when he saw who she was. It was same woman he saw earlier who helped the children. He saw her give him an apologetic look and held her finger indicating she would be with him in a moment. He was mesmerised, he had thought she was beautiful when he saw her on the street, but up close she was breathtaking, her confidence and vivaciousness as she talked on the phone made Lucas speechless so he just stared.

"Hi" She said appraising him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"James, was it?" She questioned.

"Huh?...Yeah that's right" He replied now not wanting her to know who he really was. It surprised him that all the anger he had felt earlier had left him and was replaced by intrigue and fascination. He wanted to get to know his "fiancée", he wanted to know why she would pretend to be his fiancée when it was clear to him that she did not need any sort of "help" to get what she wanted. So he decided he would be this "James", if she could pretend to be his fiancée he did not see why he could not be James.

"You've got the right look to be a model, but it takes more than that, what have you done before?" She asked in a business like manner.

"I've...hmm. I've never modelled before." He said all of sudden nervous as though he did actually want the job.

"Oh...Well you're gonna have to do a lot of work, but I'll see..." She was interrupted by a text message. She read it and smiled and noticed "James's" inquisitive look.

"Lucas" She simply said as a way of explanation.

"What?" Lucas asked fearing if she had recognised him.

"The text message was from Lucas" She elaborated.

"Oh. Lucas?" He asked trying desperately to hide his smirk.

"Lucas Scott, my fiancée, you must of read the Tribune today?" She asked seeing if he was one of the "believers" or not.

"Sorry I don't read it." Lucas shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh that's fine, I'll tell you all about it." She said before she recounted the exact same story she had told everyone else. Lucas listened intently memorising all of her idiosyncrasies, that seemed to make her glow, well to Lucas anyway. He tried desperately not to laugh at some of her characterisations of him, or correct her in some of her not so flattering assertions about his workaholic tendencies. He had to remind himself that she was making this stuff up and he should not take it as a slight against him personally because she did not know him. Peyton finished her story smiling towards "James" before remembering what he was here to do.

"So anyway about the job, I'll see what I can do and I'll give you a call, what's your number?" She asked looking towards Lucas expectantly. Lucas gave her his number and assured her he would work hard and thanked her for her help. He then made his way back towards the car, all the while smiling and shaking his head recalling her story again. He got into his car and was driven back to his office where a nervous looking Mouth awaited impatiently wanting to know what happened. Lucas entered the building whistling and smiling, causing all of his employees in the cubicles to stop what they were doing and see their boss smiling and hear him _whistling?_

"What?" Lucas asked smiling as he noticed everyone had stopped working. They quickly returned to what they were doing without answering. Lucas entered his office and threw his jacket on his chair and stood in front of the window looking out on to the horizon towards Tree Hill. Mouth noticed Lucas' strange behaviour and decided to ask how the encounter with this Peyton woman had gone. Seeing Lucas smiling further, only seemed to intrigue Mouth more.

"She's not a woman, Mouth. Peyton Sawyer is an angel, she's my angel." He said smiling, seeing Mouth's confused stare he told him about his encounter with her and his plan to get to know her better. Mouth had never seen his friend so excited before, especially over a woman, but he was glad to see Lucas focus on something other than his job for once. However he was worried about how Lucas would pull off being this "James" character. He also thought Lucas should tell her who he is and get everything out in the open, but he also knew Lucas, once his mind was made up it was impossible to change it.

Another two days passed, Lucas continued his work with the same diligence as before, he had not mentioned Peyton again, which had surprised Mouth. Lucas was in the middle of an interview he was conducting when his phone rang. He excused himself and answered the unknown number.

"Hello?" Lucas answered.

"Hi, James it's Peyton" She said awaiting a response. Lucas heart accelerated hearing her voice.

"Peyton?" He asked playing it cool.

"Yeah, Peyton... Lucas Scott's fiancée." She said reminding him.

"Oh yeah... Hi." Lucas said amused.

"Well I've managed to get you a job, could you meet me now to discuss it?" She asked hoping that he would be able to.

"Actually, I'm kinda busy right now." He replied regretfully.

"Oh. Okay, what about Saturday?" She asked thinking about when she would be free.

"Oh...Sure Saturday sounds great, where should I meet you?" He asked excited at the prospect of seeing her again.

"Just meet me in front of Max Ads, 11 sound good?"

"Yeah, I'll see you then." He said with his smile getting broader.

"Great. Bye." She said hanging up before he could reply.

"Bye." He said to the dial tone. He shook his head trying to get of this stupor he seemed to get into every time he thought about her and made his way back towards his office to resume the interview.


End file.
